Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) recently made amendments to the national Corporate Social Responsibility (#CSR) policy enshrined under the Companies Act 2013. The amendment has subscribed several changes to the provisions relating to CSR.
However, one of the key changes made by the amendment is Impact Assessment. Company having the obligation of spending the avg CSR amount of Rs 10 cr or more in the 3 immediately preceding financial yrs in pursuance of Section 135(5) of the Act, shall undertake impact assessment.
#ImpactAssessment to be done by an independent agency and with respect to #CSR projects having outlays of 1 cr or more and which have been completed not less than one year before undertaking the impact study.
The impact assessment reports shall be placed before the Board.
The new amendment has also changed the definition of CSR from inclusive to exclusive. Instead of telling what includes CSR the definition now focuses on what is not CSR.
Activities like Normal Course of Biz, Outside India Activity, Political contribution will not be counted.
One more major change: Companies can now undertake CSR activities only through:
A company established under section 8 of the act; or
a registered public trust; or a registered society.
The union cabinet has given approval to the new amendment to the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD) Act which makes it mandatory for the Delhi government to send legislative proposals for the LG's opinion 15 days in advance and seven days for administrative proposals.
Approval by the cabinet has once again given rise to the old debate of LG's power and role vs. the Delhi government's mandate. And, it is in this light, the SC judgment of 2018 - by five judge constitution bench - in the matter of Govt. of NCT Delhi v. UoI comes to our mind!
In this matter, the apex court clearly laid down that LG of Delhi had no independent decision-making powers and was bound to follow the "aid and advice" of the Delhi chief-minister-headed council of ministers on all matters except those pertaining to police, public order & land.
Any healthy legal system is measured on yardstick of effective adjudicatory mechanism & the Judge-Population ratio. India amongst countries like US , UK & Canada has lowest Judge population ratio of 19 Judges per million population.
It was way back in year 2001 when #SupremeCourt in (All India Judges Association v Union of India) expressed concern and noted that this ration shall be increased to at least 50 per million population within five years but this has not happened even almost two decades later.
As per India Justice Report 2019 at all India level there is just one subordinate court judge for 50,000 people. It includes almost 17-19 large-sized states which assimilate 90% of population. The #vacancy rate is 37% in HC's as only 680 of 1049 sanctioned strength are occupied.
With issue of public consultations on law-making once again making headlines due to the recently passed #FarmLaws2020, India's track record on public consultations (core of democracy & constitutional society) is poor and seems to be deteriorating.
Out of total 186 bills introduced in the Parliament b/w 2014-19, 90% bills never came up for public consultations or witnessed incomplete consultations. Draft Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 2019 and EIA 2020 are recent examples where the consultation process was bypassed.
Moreover, the number of bills being referred to Parliamentary Standing Committees have also dropped down drastically.
68 bills - 15th Lok Sabha
24 bills - 16th Lok Sabha
ZERO - 2020
This is despite India having a formal Pre-Legislative Consultative Policy (PLCP hereafter) 2014